For many people, Alborough is something of an unknown quantity, but this says more about the careful control he exercises over his career than the nature of his work. He is a multi-faceted, intelligent and fascinating artist who somehow manages to remain somewhat of an enigma. His work famously defies easy description and he seldom says anything about it himself. Listing the materials in which he has worked- cured elephant ears, plastic clothes pegs and armoured glass for example- can't do justice to the multi-layered meaning and visual arrest of his work. It might also seem to preclude any number of media in which he may choose to work in the future. Alborough's vocabulary is vast and its combination isunpredictable.

That his work is firmly rooted in strong and clear ideas is never in doubt, yet somehow he manages to retain the right to change his mind. As such it proves tricky to tie him down to any one analysis. His work is complex, detailed and dense, but his intentions and execution remain crystalline and precise. His work is clearly conceptual in nature but is so damn aesthetically seductive. Alborough's refusal to guide the viewer through his work might seem difficult, especially given the complex appearance and non-specific content. An experience of his work, with its refusal to lie comfortably next to any one definition, has the strange effect of enrichment rather than disempowerment.

There is an undeniable integrity which underlies his work and a strong belief that there is a solution to any problem which he may set himself.

Artist's statement:

Alborough has chosen not to say anything about his new work. This may seem obfuscatory, but Alborough allows his work to communicate before he does. While assisting in the installation of The Second Johannesburg Biennale, I pressed Alborough to reveal more about what he was doing. His reply was that a description from him was very different from an experience of the work itself, and such a description might easily disempower the work.

Currently:

Alan Alborough opens his Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition this month at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. The show will travel to major venues in the country over the next year. The exhibition is untitled.

It is unrewarding to describe visually this work but is perhaps more appropriate to attribute qualities to it and describe certain attributes: It is crisp and deliberate. It is orderly and unpredictable. It is systemic yet strangely organic. The coldness of its colours and regularity of its construction belie the labour and energy which has obviously gone into its production and which is associated with its constituent materials. It is modular, made from the (apparent) chance meetings of compatible readymade objects and devices. And, it will change. In the same way that Heathen Wet Lip, a work made for the Second Johannesburg Biennale, revealed itself as an unlikely anagram of 'white elephant' and how both of these bore an intangible relationship to the work itself, so too do the materials and processes of this new work hint at unimagined relationships. I haven't had the fortune of seeing the work installed and constructed in its entirety, but I have seen enough not to attempt a description or analysis of it.

Before that:

Alborough has been busy in his studio for some time since returning from London where he obtained his Master's Degree at Goldsmith's College. Some of his work from that period was seen on the recent touring exhibition 'Emergence: Looking at 25 years of South African practice, presentation and scholarship'. Before that his work was most familiar to Johannesburg audiences. He has been the recipient of several awards and scholarships.

And before that:

Alborough studied and taught in Johannesburg where he exhibited consistently but selectively.

Next up:

Alborough's Standard Bank exhibition will make a tour of seven major centres in South Africa, ending next year in Cape Town. At this stage it seems that the show is set to change and evolve as it moves, but typically Alborough refuses to unreservedly commit himself to this intention.

Curriculum vitae:

Alborough was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1964. He has an MA Fine Art degree from Goldsmith's College, University of London (1997), and a BA Fine Art degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (1991). He currently lives in Cape Town and is Senior Lecturer in Sculpture in the Department of Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University. He has lectured at the Technikon Witwatersrand, and held the position of Exhibitions Officer at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Selected exhibitions:

1999:

'Emergence: Looking at 25 years of South African practice, presentation and scholarship - National touring exhibition